The various embodiments described herein relate to information carriers, such as credit cards, key cards, gift cards, and the like. Information carriers often come in the shape of cards that can be used in multiple applications. One example of such cards is so-called stored value cards or pre-paid cards, that is, gift cards, which have a pre-loaded monetary value that can be used for financial transactions. Other examples include credit and debit cards, which contain information that is coupled to a particular individual and to an account associated with an individual or some kind of organization, such as a business. Yet other examples include key cards or access cards, such as hotel key cards or building access cards, which contain information that allows the holder of the card to enter a particular room or building, and so on. Cards can also be used for a variety of other purposes, such as membership cards, medical insurance cards, phone cards, badges, identification cards, business cards, season passes, and so on.
The information contained on the card can be contained in a magnet strip or smart chip embedded in the card or as a barcode printed on the card, or in any other form that allows the card to be read by an electronic or optical reader. Recently, radio frequency identifier (RFID) transmitters have also been embedded into cards, such that the information on the card can be read by an RFID reader without requiring the holder of the card to slide the card through an electronic or optical reader.
Typically, these various types of cards are made of plastic, such as PVC (PolyVinyl Chloride). One problem with these types of cards is that the plastics from which they are made, for example, PVC, has a very low biodegradability. PVC has also been linked to many environmental and health concerns and its use is discouraged in many countries. Due to the widespread use and acceptance of these plastic information carriers, such as gift cards, hotel key cards, membership cards, etc. in our society, the environmental impact becomes significant as over 24,000 tons of plastic waste end up in landfills each year in North America alone. To put such number in perspective, it represents 97 Boeing 777-200 aircrafts being thrown away each year. These cards typically require about 500 years to break down. Some alternative solutions have been proposed, such as PLA (Polyactic Acid) or Bio-PVC cards, but recently, the general public has started questioning the environmental friendliness of these products due to the process required to manufacture these or the chemicals or additives needed to make the product usable.